NEW YORK -- This may be the most important performance of Michael Fredo's career.
The soon-to-be pop sensation isn't playing to a jam-packed arena of swooning pre-pubescent admirers, or a panel of star-making agents.
Today, his audience is the staff of Teen People. His venue is their midtown New York office.
Clad almost entirely in Tommy Hilfiger, he sings his latest single, does a pseudo-moonwalk and sashays through the small crowd. The 20-year-old, who's been opening for Britney Spears on a concert tour this summer, even does a little choreographed chair dance.
The editors often invite up-and-coming talent to perform in their office. It's a way for them to calibrate charisma and judge how they'll play them in the magazine.
And when you're taking the stage for a magazine that launched in January 1998, and already boasts a circulation of 1.3 million, putting it just behind perennial teen mag industry leaders Seventeen, YM and Teen, you had better shine.
Like People, Teen People focuses on entertainers and pop culture. Articles on Columbine, gay rights and sexual harassment set it apart from the pack. Such standard teen mag fare as fashion and beauty are also there, but not in the prom-obsessed, "How to tell if he really likes you" quiz kind of way.
"We're finding young people are so much more into entertainment and celebrities, which is why Teen People is right on the money," says Irma Zandl, president of the Zandl Group, a trend research firm specializing in under-30 consumers. "Teen People rocks."
It's all about The Echo Boom, Generation Y, call it what you will. By now, the numbers are well-known. More than 30 million 12-to-19-year-olds are roaming the nation. By 2010, their numbers will have expanded to nearly 35 million. Every industry is trying to turn their heads. After all, U.S. teens spent $141 billion in 1998.
The clothing industry has responded with such brands as Mudd, FUBU and Steve Madden; music with the Backstreet Boys,'N Sync and Britney Spears; Hollywood with "Scream," "Felicity" and "Buffy."
And it didn't take long for the publishing industry to dive in.
"About a year ago, everything was very stable," says Michael Wood, with Teenage Research Unlimited, a Northbrook, Ill.-based firm similar to the Zandl Group. "Then everyone and their brother came out with a magazine."
Teen People has left such fellow fledgling teen publications as Jump, Twist and All About You in the dust, Zandl says.
In its "New Teen Spirit" issue, Rolling Stone declared Teen People the bible for teens.
If it's the bible, then editor-in-chief Christina Ferrari, 34, must be some kind of prophet.
A sign in her office says: "Remember what it was like to be a teen-ager."
The philosophy is reflected in a curiously cynicism-free staff of mid-twenty to mid-thirtysomethings, and the surroundings.
Oversize posters of previous celebrity covers line the walls. Here's a smile from Leonardo DiCaprio sure to get teen girls' hearts pounding. There's a smile from Jennifer Love Hewitt, sure to get teen boys' hearts pounding. Glass cases containing clothing worn by stars in Teen People fashion shoots are set into the walls. A gold lame jacket Puff Daddy wore, for example, berry-colored bikinis sported by Gen-Y it-girls. Every week, the offices open for tours.
We see the glossy covers with Alicia Silverstone, Drew Barrymore and 98 Degrees beaming with fresh-faced stardom.
But what goes on behind the scenes at a teen 'zine? How do its writers and editors tap into the psyches of this rich, savvy market without being patronizing or passe? A glimpse into the staff's offices, which reveal a devotion to teen immersion, is the first clue. Hot pink and animal-print decor, CD players surrounded by stacks of discs from new artists, TV screens tuned to MTV, and even photos of editors with their old teen dreams ...
A teen-ager at heart
You didn't have to lust after Brit-pop heartthrobs Duran Duran in the '80s to become one with the new teen spirit, but it helps.
Lori Majewski, senior entertainment editor at Teen People, was wild about the band.
She has brace-faced pictures of herself with Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes tacked to her office wall. Her bangs were higher back then. She's since turned into a ravishing redhead with dramatic, blunt bangs and perfectly arched brows.
Alongside the photos of her fantasy '80s boys are shots of her mugging it up with current bubblegum princes 'N Sync. When she needs a dose of adolescent enthusiasm, she looks to her stacks of vintage teenybopper magazines for inspiration.
"When I look at these pictures, I want to be reminded of what it really felt like to be a teen-ager," says Majewski, 28. "It's so important to remember what it was like. I am really a teen-ager at heart."
Rolling Stone called Majewski Teen People's "Secret Weapon." Her colleagues claim she has an uncanny next-big-thing instinct.
"Lori's radar is infallible," says Cara Lynn Shultz, an entertainment assistant at the magazine. "She can tell who's worth investing a lot of time in."
For Majewski, who regularly corresponds with teen-agers online, movie screenings, concerts and music video previews are all in a day's work.
Gen-Xers writing for Gen-Yers. How can a cohort plagued with debt and identity crisis get excited about the moneyed, pager-toting, Internet-obsessed one being aggressively coddled by marketers and the media?
Well, working in a purple office helps.
"You have a grin on your face at this place. I don't think anyone's really cynical here," Majewski says. "That doesn't mean everyone goes home and blasts Britney Spears, but it means we all enjoy being in the same boat together."
Meeting of the minds
Britney, Katie, James, Carson.
The Teen People staff, assembled for the September issue wrap-up meeting, bandies about the names of teen royalty like they're longtime friends.
Fashion editor Jorge Ramon has been known to assist teen pop idol Britney Spears with many an outfit selection.
To the masses, the stars known on a first-name basis by the staff are Spears, Dawson's Creeksters Katie Holmes and James Van Der Beek, and MTV VJ Carson Daly.
Those hot names are all Teen People fixtures.
There are a few more things that need to be ironed out before they put the issue to bed.
The staff is having difficulties procuring childhood photos of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter for Star Flashback, a feature that displays photos of celebs at all stages of life and career. Call his mom, someone suggests. No luck pinning down Neve Campbell for a Q&A.; It's not that she doesn't want to. FYI, she wrote a personal essay about her brother's battle with Tourette's syndrome for one issue. It's a scheduling thing. Should they let their teen trend spotters across the country have more responsibilities within the magazine? They certainly did a great job on a recent photo shoot.
All the problems are solvable. But there's one thing that took Ferrari completely by surprise.
"There are literally no boy bands in this issue," Ferrari says with a laugh. "How can that be?"
Guilty pleasures
Michael Fredo's act was a little awkward. The smile is a little forced, the moves a tad sexual for such a young man.
It's much easier to set teen hearts a-thumping with a bump here, a grind there, a goofy smile and a soaring falsetto than it is a small group of New York publishing people.
"You have to see it live," he says, ambling back to his chair.
It's not that the staff members didn't enjoy the show. They just aren't panting, gasping and fainting.
One came a little closer than the others.
Shultz is a little smitten with Fredo.
Following his mini-concert, it's her turn to ask him a series of silly questions for the magazine's Chatter feature.
What's on your answering machine?
What do you have in your glove compartment?
What's your guilty pleasure?
It's chocolate.
Shultz probes further. Chocolate Easter bunnies? Do you eat the ears?
He gives her a twinkling smile and touches her arm. Shultz is pretty red by now.
Jen Schroeder, assistant beauty and fitness editor, is working on a run-through of the favorite brands and products of teen celebs, and asks Fredo for his picks. Fredo, the new spokesman for Tommy Hilfiger, plugs his endorser, even though he has Nikes on his feet.
"I'm not even supposed to be wearing these shoes," he admits.
After the barrage of questions, Shultz leads him out. But before he goes, she has to have an autograph. Luckily, there are plenty of Michael Fredo posters available. An airbrushed heartthrob image of perfect skin and wispy hair.
As he signs one for her, she gushes over his album.
"It's skipping," she says. "I can't play it anymore."
He gives her a parting hug. They accidentally butt heads first. He draws a cartoon face on the celebrity message board. Shultz thinks it's adorable.
She watches him as he leaves.
"We do work! We do spend time working!" she insists, smiling. "You can't spend every day hanging out with a cool celebrity."
Shultz returns to the scene of the performance and starts straightening up. Two co-workers walk in. Still glowing from her close encounter, she has a question for her colleagues.
"Was he gorgeous?"